Why the baby boomers owe it to us to back rent control

An interesting angle by Alex Hilton at generationrent.org. It’s fairly true to say that the year you where born in now plays a large part in your chances for owning your own home.

Young people think they’re unlucky to be living in an era when buying a home is out of reach. Older people think young people are unlucky too, and it’s common these days for people with assets to help their offspring with a deposit so they can escape the rent trap. But if they don’t have any assets, they can’t. For those people, their kids are facing a lifetime of eye-watering rents.

The reason landlords can charge so much is that there isn’t enough supply. We’ve had a population boom but haven’t built any new housing. If we had more homes landlords would have to lower prices to attract tenants.

If we brought in rent controls developers would be wary about building more homes and the supply shortage would get even worse.

Sometimes I think this website is actually a front for buy to let landlords!

generationrent

We most certainly are not a front for buy to let landlords, quite the opposite! Supply is one thing but bringing an unregulated rental market under control is quite another.

What We Think…

With the housing situation in the UK seemingly becoming beyond an entire generations affordability the term Generation rent was forged. It describes how that generation has been priced out of the market for property and are locked into an unforgiving and inflexible rental market .
It’s shocking to see how many websites there are out there that use the term Generation Rent to inform landlords and homeowners how best to exploit them.
That’s why we chose to launch Generation-rent.com, to give those who are trapped in this demoralising position a voice and a place to gain further insight into why this has happened to them.